Shaiya Review

Shaiya is a Fantasy styled MMORPG developed by ChoiRock Games and Published by Aeria Games in December 2007. When starting the game players are asked to choose one of the two available factions (Union of Fury and Alliance of Light), their class (Fighter, Defender, Priest, Ranger, Archer and Mage) and their name. The customization options are limited compared to MMORPG’s that were released more recently but it is not too bad considering the initial release date of the game.

A really interesting feature that Shaiya offers after the character creation are the four different difficulty modes that players would like to play in (Easy, Normal, Hard and Ultimate). As is the case with similar systems found in other titles, a player must finish the game in Normal mode in order to Unlock Hard more and finish Hard mode in order to Unlock Ultimate mode. Out of all these Ultimate mode stands out as it includes permanent death to your character if you die, a system that isn’t common amongst many MMO’s.

The graphics are outdated but the good thing is due to the low requirements it can run on a wide range of low end computers. The colours are not too bright and they manage to hold that nostalgia of MMORPG’s during the 2000’s.

Progressing is quite slow and the way the quests are there is not a fluid rollercoaster feel to it but rather a dry and uninteresting kill and collect x amount of creatures. Levelling is another thing that takes a long time to achieve and that makes the procedure quite grind heavy.

The PvP is more interesting and exciting to participate in but unfortunately the fact that the playerbase is smaller than what it used to be it takes a very long time to start. There are three available types of PvP: Individual PvP, Faction PvP and Battlegrounds.

Shaiya is an old game that has some outdated graphics and that is a big reason for someone not to try it out. However, if you enjoy permanent death modes that exist in mostly Action RPG’s I would suggest to treat Shaiya with a similar mindset and try the Ultimate mode as it  can offer a challenge to level up in!